The present invention relates to a separating device for mail items.
Separating devices are known which are fed at the input with packs of mail items (letters and postcards), and which provide for forming at the output a substantially orderly stream of linearly spaced items.
Known separating devices feature either permeable belts or perforated drums, which, with the aid of a vacuum pump, suck one item at a time off the pack and feed it to a follow-up conveyor line.
In addition to being highly complex, devices of the aforementioned type present a limited output capacity, and fail to provide for adjusting the characteristics of the output stream.
Other known mail separating devices, such as that described in European Patent EP-60.596 filed by Elettronica San Giorgio-ELSAG S.p.A., feature a pair of endless belts having straight portions converging at an acute angle and maintained elastically contacting each other at a contact portion corresponding to the apex of the acute angle. The two belts present widely differing friction coefficients, and travel in opposite directions.
The belts are fed with a stream of mail items, which are wedged inside the V-shaped opening defined by the straight portions of the belts, and are fed one at a time through the contact portion by the higher friction coefficient belt and on to a follow-up conveyor belt system on which the items are arranged in an orderly stream with a normally constant gap between the adjacent portions.
Devices of the aforementioned type fail to provide for adjusting the gap between the adjacent portions of the items in the output stream, or for producing an output stream wherein the leading edges of the items present a constant pitch.